THREE month forecast maps are showing plenty of some excellent colours, but virtually no rain is predicted at least until after October.
The Bureau of Meteorology says rainfall is likely to be below average across most of the country for October to January, except for north west Western Australia, where above average rainfall is likely through the November to January period.
In the shorter term, the second half of September is likely to be drier than average across most of the country.
October is showing particularly strong chances for almost all of mainland Australia of being a drier than usual month.
The commonwealth forecaster says the positive Indian Ocean Dipole remains a key climate driver of Australian climate for the coming months. This, combined with a forecast negative Southern Annual Mode (SAM) phase, is driving the warm and dry conditions forecast by the Bureau's climate model, BOM says.
On August 29 BOM predicted the chance of an early northern rainfall onset for the 2019-20 season was low over large parts of northern Australia.
Areas which have a less than 30pc chance of an early rainfall onset include much of the Top End and central parts of the NT, Cape York Peninsula and eastern Queensland, and the far north Kimberley in WA.
In other words, these areas have a greater than 70pc chance of a late rainfall onset.
BOM says most of northern Western Australia has roughly equal chances of an early or late rainfall onset.
The northern rainfall onset date is recognised when the rainfall hits 50mm from September 1. It is considered to be about the amount of rainfall required to stimulate plant growth.